In the final Town Council workshop of the year and the last for Mayor Pete Muldoon and councilor Jim Stanford, the elected officials voted to increase property taxes, up building permit fees, and hire a consultant to begin paid parking in the downtown and force residents to have parking permits in their own neighborhoods.
The council directed the town manager, Larry Pardee, to inform the county that the town would be raising the tax on town property owners by a half-mil.
Vice Mayor Hailey Morton-Levinson voted against the proposal as did councilman Jonathon Schechter who noted the council’s timing of the decision is not good. Referring to a pay raise for the elected officials that the council voted on at the onset of the pandemic, Schechter said, “I voted against the pay raise not because I thought it was a bad idea not because I didn’t support it but because I thought the timing was awful politically, I thought it was a bad idea because of it was happening at the same time that we were looking at all the budget mess around COVID and I have the same feeling about the property tax”
The council then voted to direct staff to prepare a 33% increase for new residential and commercial permits and revise the remodel valuation fee schedule to the most recent version from the international code. Outgoing councilmember Jim Stanford said,” This is long overdue and I’m ready to take some action here promptly and you know bring our fees in line with what are other mountain towns resort towns are paying.”
When the subject of paid parking came up, Town Planning Director Paul Anthony noted that a parking program could take several years to begin generating any revenue and would entail hiring as many as five additional staff members. Anthony said, “It takes a while to get one of these programs up and running so really from the time you know if the council said yes we want to start doing this great idea you know we’re saying that it’s going to be three to three to four years before that program produces revenue any kind of revenue to the town it will take probably 18 months or more to get the system actually in the ground and then go live maybe 20 even 24 months.“
Undeterred, Muldoon made a motion to direct the cash-strapped town to hire a consultant for an amount not to exceed $25,000 to help draft and issue an RFP to solicit bids from professional market parking management companies to implement a paid parking program in downtown Jackson and a residential permit program.
None of the items were specifically noticed on the agenda and public comment was limited and it was noted the next group of councilors could change any of the decisions made today.
The council had asked the community to vote in favor of a sales tax increase in November, but the measure failed.
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